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1999

Contents

Events

January

  • January 7: Greek boat Aera (Nikos Lykiardopoulos, Panagiotis Papadeas, Michalis Benakis, etc) ranks first at the Sydney-Hobart sailing race. Extreme weather conditions made the race very difficult. Four sailors drowned when their boat capsized.

February

  • February 15: Kurdish rebel leader, Abdullah Ocalan, leaves the Greek Embassy in Kenya and is arrested by Kenyan officials who hand him over to the Turks. The event sparks reactions in Greece that lead to the resignation of three government ministers.
  • February 17: Nikos Polychronopoulos wins the gold medal at the European Juniors Billiard Championship in Murcia, Spain.
  • February 19: Alexandros Papadopoulos, Evangelos Venizelos and Philippos Petsalnikos resign from their ministerial posts subsequent to the Ocalan arrest.
  • February 28: Proodeftiki defeat Iraklis for the first time in 31 years. PAOK's chalk up their first away win over Panathinaikos in 15 years.
  • February 28: The Greek rhythmic team (featuring Irini Aindili, Eva Christodoulou, Hara Karyami, Anna Pollatou, Maria Georgatou and Kleoniki Georgakopoulou) wins the first gold medal (38.767 points) in its history at the Madera International Tournament.

March

April

  • April 7: AEK play against Partizan Belgrade, despite the NATO bombardments, to show solidarity with the Serbian people.

May

June

July

August

  • August 7: Stavros Fryganas, first unofficial Greek chess champion in 1930, dies in Malaga aged 90. He was the man who introduced chess clocks to Greece for the first official championship in 1947.
  • August 17: A powerful earthquake (6.6 on the Richter scale) causes extensive damage to Izmit (Nicomedia) Turkey. Greek rescue units will be among the first on the scene. A political rapprochement between the countries will follow.
  • August 22: Katerina Thanou breaks the women's Greek record in the 100m with 10.83 at the Sevilla World Championships.
  • August 23: Anastasia Kelesidou wins the silver medal in discus (66.05m) at the Sevilla World Championships.
  • August 28: Mirella Maniani-Tzelili wins the gold medal in the javelin (67.09m) at the Sevilla World Championships.

September

October

November

December

  • December 29: Vasilis Chatzipanagis receives a 1 million drachmas cheque from EPAE for his contribution to greek football and announces the foundation of a football academy in the year 2000
  • December 31: It is the last day white balls are used in the Greek volleyball championship. From 2000, balls will bear yellow and blue stripes.

Deaths

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

October

Births